A camping condundrum – is a tent still worthwhile?

An idyllic view of camping, but is it really the cheap option these days? Photograph: Alamy

Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it's up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday's paper.

This week's question

Our family's going camping this summer and we need to buy a tent. Has anyone found a decent, cheapish, dark tent in which we won't be woken at 5am? Also, having seen the fees some sites now charge, we're wondering whether camping is the cheap option it once was?